There are few things more dangerous for NBA observers than getting carried away by Summer League performances. Many players have turned heads at Summer League in the past and most of them couldn’t sustain that level of play once the real season started. Always, always, take July outings with a huge grain of salt.

- That said, useful observations can still be gleaned from watching summer ball and here are a few related to the Raptors:

- Everyone seems to be talking about second-round pick Norman Powell – the coaching staff think he’ll make the big club, instead of toiling for the Baby Raptors (I refuse to call them by that silly name) – and it’s easy to see why. Powell has been tremendous. The pressure he puts on opposing ball-handlers has been something to see and that is something that will translate. Powell’s motor and relentlessness got him drafted.

He wasn’t supposed to be able to shoot or handle the ball much though, but he’s averaged 19.3 points on .595 shooting (40% from three) through three games, crediting long hours in the gym for the improvement. We’ll wait and see on the improved jumper, jump shots can come and go and players can get streaky, but handles don’t come and go. Powell has been way better than advertised with the ball in his hands. He has a quick first step and controls the ball well. He has shown an ability to make multiple moves and to get to the rim easily. Again, it’s Summer League, but he’s been intriguing and might finally be the second round pick that the Raptors actually hit on.

- Bebe looks much better than he has in the past. He’s more engaged, more dynamic, making an impact defensively (nine blocks over three games and 30 rebounds) and seems far more energized. Whatever the Raptors said to him seems to be working. He didn’t mind sitting on the bench and learning last season (at least that’s what we told us whenever we talked to him about it), but you can tell he doesn’t want to be forgotten in the D-League or pulling out splinters this year as well. The Raptors signed Bismack Biyombo, pushing Nogueira further down the depth chart, but he appears to have been slighted by the move and ready to show that he can guard the rim too (with light years more offensive talent than Biyombo). As always, it will be Bebe’s ability to stay on the floor, avoiding both fouls and nagging injuries, that will determine if he has a role with the Raptors.

- First round pick Delon Wright is never going to turn heads like a Powell or a Ronald Roberts, but he’s just solid. He’s going to need to show he can hit shots, or else defenders will play way off of him, but he looks like a steady, shifty backup point guard who plays the angles well and limits mistakes. It can be lazy journalism to compare players to others who competed for the same NCAA program, but in this case, I think comparisons to a younger Andre Miller fit. Like Miller, Wright won’t jump out of the gym or rain three-pointers, but he’ll help a team win games. Miller was the better mid-range shooter, but Wright is the better defender.

Now that he’s only one year away from being two years away, Bruno Caboclo looks like he has advanced quite a bit from a year ago. He certainly isn’t shy about putting up shots and remains deadly from the corners. His long arms will always make him a defensive threat and he appears to have a better handle on where he should be on both ends of the court. Concentration (those free throws!) and ball-movement are two things Bruno still needs lots of work on.

- Ronald Roberts has come out of nowhere and made a huge impact as well. The guy jumps like Gerald Green or James White, but also plays hard every time he is on the court and attacks the hoop, instead of settling for jump shots. He looks intriguing and the Raptors could keep him tied to the organization pretty easily if both sides had mutual interest. Something like this could work: The team gives Roberts a certain amount guaranteed (usually $25-$50,000) and make him an “affiliate player” before cutting him prior to the D-League draft. That would allow the Raptors to have Roberts play in Mississauga for the season. If they wanted, once 10-day contracts become legal in January, they could give him a couple, then choose to sign him to an NBA contract.

Powell’s situation is a bit different. The team could dip into its miniscule remaining cap space to try to sign him to a multi-year deal, keeping team control for as long as possible.

Bruno, Bebe and Wright wouldn’t count as some of the four “affiliate” players if they see time in Mississauga, since they are signed by the Raptors and stay on the Toronto roster. Roberts (and up to three other Summer League or training camp players the Raptors cut) would be “affiliate” players.

The official wording: “NBA Training Camp Allocations: Up to four players released from the roster of an NBA team before the D-League Draft can be allocated to that team’s D-League affiliate provided they sign the standard D-League contract. They are known as “affiliate players.”

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- It was nice to see Phil Scrubb, a rare CIS player competing at Summer League, fit right in and play so well.

Just in time for the Pan Am Games, one of the greatest international players the Americas have ever seen announced he was coming to Toronto too.

Luis Scola tweeted just after the NBA’s moratorium period ended at 12 a.m. Thursday morning: “We the North… Here I come,” indicated the club had added some sorely needed depth at power forward and a league source confirmed Scola had signed.

Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported the deal was for one year, at $3 million U.S.

Scola, 35, had a bounce-back season in his second campaign in Indiana, posting his best advanced stats in years (he particularly improved at getting to the free throw line, rebounding and taking care of the ball).

Scola has averaged 12.7 points and 7.0 rebounds, shooting 49.7% from the field in 631 NBA games, 428 of them starts.

He has missed just nine games over his eight-year career and has been a model of consistency.

Scola started alongside Kyle Lowry for parts of two seasons in Houston and played alongside him in other years when Lowry came off of the bench.

Another former Rocket – Patrick Patterson – will likely step into the starting power forward role, giving the Raptors lots of shooting in the top five. James Johnson is also expected to spend the bulk of his time at power forward.

Scola should work well beside backup centre Bismack Biyombo, an elite rim protector who won’t try to take Scola’s touches on offence and with Cory Joseph, who he can run pick-and-pops with.

Scola has been nothing short of a terror while playing for Argentina over the years, leading the team to Olympic gold and bronze medals, while averaging over 20 points in many tournaments.

He is a three-time winner of FIBA Americas MVP.

The signing leaves the Raptors with about $2 million in cap room remaining (assuming Luke Ridnour’s unguaranteed contract is waived).

DeMarre Carroll and Joseph were set to be introduced to the media at morning press conferences Thursday.

The NBA announced Wednesday night that the salary cap was jumping to a record-high of $70 million. That was $3 million more than the initial projections that the league gave to teams back in April and a million more than the reported number that surfaced last week.

It means that the three new max contracts will start at $16.4 million, $19.7 million and $23.0 million, based on service time. For example, Jonas Valanciunas will be eligible for the smallest number this summer, DeMar DeRozan for the biggest next summer.

A franchise-record 49 wins, original Raptors star Damon Stoudamire honoured, Kyle Lowry finds his jump shot, DeMar DeRozan keeps on rolling, showing no signs of injury and then says this , one heck of a night to finish the regular season.

- The usually defensively-solid Hornets looked like they had already booked their tee times but three things still stand out because Gerald Henderson and Bismack Biyombo weren’t taking any plays of: DeRozan seems like he might have solved the Henderson riddle. Henderson locked him up for years, but over the past week, DeRozan has easily bested him twice. Lowry had no trouble scoring at will over Charlotte’s defenders after two brutal shooting games in Florida and then against Boston and Valanciunas made a variety of pretty moves to score consistently inside against Biyombo, merely one of the NBA’s premier rim protectors. He missed two shots, he was told after the game. “Sorry,” Valanciunas replied with a smile. His third season ends with averages of 12 points and 8.7 rebounds on 57% shooting (second in the NBA behind only DeAndre Jordan’s ridiculous 71%).

- More interesting stats: The Raptors finish the season No. 3 in offensive efficiency, but just 23rd in defensive rating (the team finished a respectable 10th in net rating). Toronto finished third-last in assist% (percentage of scores assisted on), a dismal 25th in defensive rebound percentage (one of this team’s biggest flaws), but fourth overall in turnover percentage (so they don’t create many assists, but they don’t turn the ball over much either). The team ranked No. 6 in true shooting percentage, which is an important stat. Toronto finished just 25th in opponent’s effective field goal percentage, that’s not good, but 10th in opponent’s turnover ratio, that is good.

- Some more: Greivis Vasquez ranked No. 10 in the NBA in catch-and-shoot effective field goal percentage; Terrence Ross finished 20th in catch-and-shoot points; Opponent’s shot 46.5% at the rim against Valanciunas, which puts him with the likes of Hassan Whiteside, Josh Smith, Timofey Mozgov, Dwight Howard and Nerlens Noel. Rudy Gobert (who got worse as the season went on in that category) and Serge Ibaka led the league; James Johnson’s 63.7% FG% on drives led all NBA players with at least 50 drives. Patrick Patterson was 5th, Amir Johnson was 8th; Lou Williams ranked No. 15 and Ross No. 16 in points per touch (points scored per possession of ball); Valanciunas trailed only Whiteside in points per half-court touch; DeRozan ranked No. 7 in pullup points per game.

- Canadian content bonus – Andrew Wiggins covered exactly 200 miles while on the court this year, second only to Damian Lillard. Cory Joseph had an average speed of 4.7 miles per hour, second only to teammate Patty Mills.

Couldn’t get this in for the Damon Stoudamire piece, but he had interesting things to say about Lowry, who he knew as a first and second-year player in Memphis:

“You know Kyle has always been the underdog. He never was respected in high school. He never was respected in college,” Stoudamire explained.

“He gets drafted, I’m there, me and him are kind of splitting minutes. They draft Mike Conley. Now you’ve got three point guards, he goes and stews in the corner, I can remember the first pre-season game he’s the third point guard. I just told him, ‘you’ve got to prove yourself, probably I’m going to get traded,’ which I did, I got traded to San Antonio. I told him they are trying to see which one of them is the point guard for that team, it’s not losing the battle.

“The funny thing about it is he gets traded, he goes to Houston, Houston trades Aaron Brooks. Aaron Brooks came off being most improved player. He’s always had to prove himself, he’s always had to play with a chip on his shoulder. What he’s been doing this season, I would say it’s the same thing, he wanted to prove everybody wrong.

I’m going to get on him a little bit though because, I’m like, ‘he’s taking games off for rest?’ That’s what they put on the file. Kyle Lowry never took games off for rest. Never. Just tell him. I hope he didn’t get big-time all of a sudden after he made the all-star team.”

- This is the last Points Per Game of the season. With three beat writers and a columnist covering every Raptors playoff game, there just isn’t enough left to cover in this space.

After two rough losses to the Celtics in a matter of days, the Raptors have to be glad they won’t see Brad Stevens and his team again. Boston has had some luck in the wins, but you also need to credit Stevens for the way this group has executed over the past two months. They aren’t the greatest team, but they are in the right spots nearly all the time, something nobody says about the Raptors, particularly defensively.

- Don’t go all X-Files on DeMar DeRozan not playing. While his fall looked bad the other night and it appeared he might have re-injured his groin, everyone has denied it, DeRozan returned to that game and played well. It might seem odd that he didn’t practice on Monday, but why risk anything at this point. The Raptors made the smart move of resting him, even if it likely cost the franchise a shot at 50 games. Again, it was the right call. While 50 wins would have been nice, winning a round is a lot more important and getting DeRozan a rest after he played a ton of minutes over the past six weeks will pay off down the line.

- On that note, it must have heartened the club to see Amir Johnson back after his four-game injury absence, especially since he was excellent. Johnson had been playing some of his best ball of the season when he got hurt by landing on the foot of a teammate and he was surprisingly in form, despite the layoff, in this one, with eight points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 15 minutes. I’ve made the case in this space before and will stick with the belief that cutting Johnson’s minutes a bit would pay off. While 15 minutes isn’t enough, his usual 25-30 is a bit high, especially if Tyler Hansbrough is playing as well as he has been recently (not to mention the team will need to find some time for James Johnson against either Paul Pierce or Giannis Antetokounmpo in the playoffs) – though Hansbrough had his worst game in weeks on Tuesday (to make it worse, even when he was doing something right, he got burned, when Jae Crowder made that ridiculous winning shot over him). With Hansbrough struggling, James Johnson needed to play more.

- Kyle Lowry hitting 2-of-4 three-point attempts was a good sign, but his 6-for-20 shooting was not. His timing is still off thanks to missing so many games. It isn’t just with jump shots either, he said his drives are off as well as he isn’t quite getting the separation he needs. Lowry has one more left to try to figure it out before the playoffs start. Always love the Lowry-Marcus Smart matchup. The refs let them play. Cool to see how it developed since the pre-season in Maine.

- The most troubling thing: Once again the Raptors got destroyed on the offensive glass. This has been a bad rebounding team all year but surrendering 17 offensive rebounds is just not acceptable. You can see it coming – when the team loses in the playoffs, one of the major reasons why will because it can’t rebound, particularly late in games. It is a fatal flaw that only upgrades at power forward and small forward in the off-season can solve.

- The sixth man race should be Lou Williams, Isaiah Thomas and Nikola Mirotic. Jamal Crawford has not been good enough to deserve another shot, Rudy Gobert wasn’t that good as a reserve and Andre Igoudala has a ridiculous team around him Neither Williams or Thomas helped their case in this one. Williams had a rough night and Thomas struggled with his shooting as well. Still, Williams hit a ton of free throws and Thomas collected a lot of assists without making many mistakes, so the night wasn’t all bad for them.

- The Raptors have been a great third quarter team this season, but without DeRozan in this one, that frame was the difference. They were totally outplayed.

- On an unrelated note, was great to see the basketball community turn out at the BioSteel All-Canadian Game. It was a fun event, with a lot of talent on hand.

MIAMI — In a game that was mostly dreadful to watch thanks to some whistle-happy referees and the ensuing, rather unpleasant free throw shooting, the Raptors showed some encouraging signs.

- DeMar DeRozan continues to play like a top 10 player in the NBA, a streak that has been going on now since March 1st. He has been fantastic and has been carrying the team, particularly in the clutch when he keeps making the right decisions. Lou Williams has gone red-hot again, poor Tyler Johnson had no answers for him and Kyle Lowry did the little things (seven rebounds – five of them in the crucial fourth quarter, three steals, a huge stop on Dwyane Wade late) to make up for his AWOL jump shot and his handing out just one assist. Tyler Hansbrough continues to play tremendous basketball, Greivis Vasquez might be getting his shot back and even Terrence Ross showed some fire that we’ve rarely seen.

- Ross took it to the basket more than we’ve seen for most of the season. He got five rebounds, which is rare for him, and just seemed far more willing to battle and go into tough spots than he usually does. Patrick Patterson also took it inside for two straight scores, including a monster dunk . If Patterson and Ross suddenly start venturing inside more often, the Raptors become less predictable and even harder to stop.

- It wasn’t all good, the defence still sprang a lot of leaks – especially in a first half that Dwane Casey called “one of our worst halves of basketball.” “We could have folded the tent in after the first half, even though we were getting drilled every which way possible,” Casey said.

- Jonas Valanciunas turned in possibly his worst ever performance. He was dominated by Hassan Whiteside and did not respond well to all of the fouls called against him, which barely allowed him to stay on the court. “He had some silly fouls, grabbing fouls, getting into a ‘rassling match. You can’t do that. And when you get upset with the officials, they’re human and he’s got to learn to keep his emotions under check,” Casey said. “I love his passion, I love his give-a-you-know-what level but he’s got to keep his emotions under control and not let it get him tangled up because a lot of times, he’s getting the short end of the stick.”

- The “give-a-(bleep)” reference wasn’t the only tie to the Maple Leafs minutes after the hockey team’s season mercifully ended. Lowry was sporting a Leafs hat and was told he was brave for doing that, given what a joke they have become. “I’ve just got to represent a little bit, Lowry said. “That’s the home team so I’m still representing them.”

- Lowry shook off Casey’s play-call, but there was no issue, he saw something he thought would work and it did. “That’s one thing about coach and our relationship, he trusts me,” Lowry said. “He wanted to call something, I felt very strongly about it, I was on the floor and he said go ahead with it. It worked and it’s not an I told you so thing, it’s a trust level thing.”

- Lowry on the brief time he played wearing a headband: ” I don’t know, just trying something new. It was too hot. Honestly, I would’ve kept wearing it but it was soaking wet,” he said. “I might wear one Tuesday, I might wear it Wednesday, I might wear it in the playoffs. Who knows?”

- Chicago was losing to Philadelphia for much of Saturday night, but came back in the end to keep pace with the Raptors. It appears the battle for third place will come right down to the wire. Chicago has a tough game against Brooklyn on Monday and finishes against an Atlanta team that likely will be resting players. Toronto has a back-to-back with Boston (battling for a playoff spot) and Charlotte (eliminated). Chicago would need to win an extra game to claim third, since Toronto has the tie-breaker, so, right now, the odds say Toronto will get third spot and meet the Milwaukee Bucks.

ORLANDO — The Kyle Lowry comeback game was a rousing success – other than the fact he had to play about five more minutes than the Raptors would have preferred. Lowry had some rust, but still had a huge impact in the game in an impressive performance. And his presence opened things up for other scorers, like DeMar DeRozan who has been a top 10 overall player the past five weeks or so, and Lou Williams, Greivis Vasquez and Tyler Hansbrough.

- Yes, old problems reappeared – specifically not being able to haul in a rebound at crucial times (how many chances were they going to give Nikola Vucevic?) and not guarding the three well enough (Lowry admitted Victor Oladipo, usually a slasher, surprised him by pulling up for a three). But overall, it was a good effort against a young team that plays extremely hard. The Raptors needed to match that intensity to win and they did.

- DeRozan has been spectacular recently, responding better than anyone could have imagined to one of the toughest stretches of his career. He is back in all-star form, perhaps playing his best basketball ever.

- Hansbrough has given the Raptors a lift. They might need to consider extending his minutes even when Amir Johnson returns. He gives them the attitude they sorely lack to start most games. He will go after the ball and knock heads. He has been smarter and less preoccupied with scoring the ball this season and it has paid off for him. He has been setting nice screens and rebounding. The only issue is his finishing, but he deserves more time.

- Of course so does James Johnson and his DNP-CD was a head scratcher against a team as athletic as Orlando. Especially when Terrence Ross got hurt (though the team prefers him as a power forward). If Johnson can’t play when Amir is out, against a team of greyhounds, when can he play?

- Smart foul by the Raptors late on Elfrid Payton, forcing Orlando to call a new play. It worked out better than Boston getting a chance to call a new play the other day.

- DeRozan had been just 2-for-28 on non-corner three pointers this season before hitting a massive one. He hit three in all, two from the corners where he shoots a solid percentage (particularly from the right corner).

- These are the types of things Lowry provides: Tough driving layup while being fouled to start the fourth quarter; A great pass to a cutting Chuck Hayes for a score; Rebounds in traffic; A big three when it was needed.

- Lowry said he spent his early time off of the court in the game stretching his back on the sideline to keep it loose. Later, he returned to the bench when he was of because he knew he would only be getting a brief rest.
- DeRozan on the Lou Williams game-winner: ” I just took what they gave me. I saw Lou going to the corner. Once I saw that I knew I was going to make the play.”

- Hansbrough on the dunk with about 1:30 remaining that was set up by Williams and ended up being a crucial play: “Oh yeah, definitely. It was a great pass by Lou, my man was up, expecting Lou to make a play and Lou found me under the basket,” Hansbrough said.

- Casey likes what he sees in the young Magic. “That young team is going to be really, really athletic Their speed and quickness is second-to-none.” They will need to find some shooters, but in Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon, Orlando has three stat-stuffing, high energy, potential defensive stars going forward. But it will take time. Casey sees them as being in the same situation Toronto was a couple of seasons ago and it isn’t easy to go from OK to solid the way it is to go from bad to OK.

Finally, Toronto’s bizarre half-decade of horror in Charlotte has come to an end. The team annihilated the Hornets Wednesday in a game that was never close. Charlotte normally struggles to score, but this was ridiculous. Just 15 points in the opening quarter, 74 in all (and only excellent 10-for-22 shooting from outside for a team that usually is awful from deep allowed Charlotte to even crack 70 points).

- A few Raptors located their missing jumpers (Greivis Vasquez seems to be coming on now from three-point range, Terrence Ross went 3-for-5, and Patrick Patterson and Lou Williams combined to go 5-for-13). This team lives and dies with its three-point shooting, so having a few players warm up with the playoffs so close is a good sign.

- Dwane Casey is no fan of eccentric hair-dos. He said as much when James Johnson showed up with red hair, just as he had said in the past when Amir Johnson showed up to practice with a couple of funky ‘dos. But as long as the players produce, Casey will get past his old-school objections. Amir certainly did when he had those hairstyles (you could make a case he was Casey’s best overall player for the first two years of his Toronto coaching tenure) and James Johnson was excellent against the Hornets, aside from a few mistakes. He only grabbed seven rebounds, not the 15 Casey wanted (in a true homage to Dennis Rodman) put Johnson definitely provided a spark.

- Look, the Hornets are missing a ton of talent (and they don’t have that much offensive skill to start with) but this was still an impressive Raptors performance. The Raptors have been searching for more efforts like this, ones where they attack right off the jump and send a strong message that life is going to be tough for their opponent. Too often, they waltz through the opening quarter, take a few punches, then rally. Was part of the change a result of Tyler Hansbrough starting as opposed to Amir? There could be something to that. Amir often eases his way into games (like the team itself) and improves as it goes on. Hansbrough only knows one speed – full tilt – and sets the tone immediately. Hansbrough has been tremendous the past two games. I’ve long argued for Patterson and James Johnson both starting, but maybe Hansbrough should start, knocks some heads, then give way for Johnson (when he returns to health) after about five minutes? Might make some sense.

- Yet again DeMar DeRozan had a miserable shooting night against the Hornets – he just can’t get the space he needs against good defenders Gerald Henderson and Jeffrey Taylor – but he at least got to the line seven times (making six of them) and grabbing seven rebounds.

- For now, Toronto is back in third place in the East (if Chicago and Toronto finish tied, as they were before Chicago’s game in Miami Thursday night) Toronto gets third because it is the division winner while Chicago is in second in the Central behind Cleveland.

- At the risk of repeating ourselves, the Raptors can’t guard the perimeter. Especially not when Kyle Lowry isn’t playing. While Lowry has slipped in that department this season, his track record shows he can be one of the better defensive guards in the league. Nobody else on the roster can say the same and as we said a day ago, Greivis Vasquez is among the worst defensive guards in the league. That was evident again against Boston. Sure, the Raptors got some bad luck in losing this zany, overtime contest, but they authored a lot of their own misfortune by defending so poorly. They couldn’t guard the initial point of attack (again), so other players had to come over and help, which leaves others wide open and allows bad things to happen. Rinse and repeat, this same issue has plagued the Raptors all season. Did John Salmons mean that much? Without the veteran defender, this group has gone from above average to the bottom of the NBA defensively. It’s baffling.

- Give the Raptors credit for fighting back. They have heart, but heart only gets you so far. When fully healthy, they have talent as well, but what they lack is defensive smarts and ability. Without those things, winning a round in the playoffs looks highly unlikely, though a matchup with Milwaukee could produce a win regardless, since 80% of the Bucks can’t shoot.

- Sure looked like DeMar DeRozan also got fouled on the tying bucket in regulation … DeRozan shot a ridiculously good 10-for-20 on contested field goal attempts and 4-for-5 on uncontested. He and Tyler Hansbrough were the reasons the Raptors were able to fight back.

- Besides not being able to get stops, this team has had a maddening tendency all year to fail to haul in crucial defensive rebounds. Maybe that shouldn’t be surprising since statistically, this is one of the worst rebounding teams in the entire league and has been all season, but that flaw seems to shine like a beacon in tight games, when rebound after rebound goes unclaimed, giving opponents the second or third shots they need to win games.

- Patrick Patterson had a rough day. If he had made one shot the Raptors would have won the game (he shot an uncharacteristic 0-for-7) and then Kentucky lost. At least he was one of the few Raptors doing a strong job on the boards.

- Even if Amir Johnson returns before the end of the regular season, there is no chance he is 100% for the playoffs. That’s a huge problem. The games being spaced out will help the Raptors, who will have an older roster than whoever they play (for the most part, this doesn’t apply to Paul Pierce), but no amount of rest will prevent Johnson from rolling his troublesome ankle again if he lands the wrong way.

- Hansbrough played a fantastic game and has had an extremely underrated season. There have been times when he has fallen out of the rotation, times when he has been a big contributor, but throughout it all, the North Carolina product has posted excellent advanced stats and made an impact. With Johnson unable to stay healthy, it seems like Hansbrough’s role will only increase from here until the end of the season, when he will be an unrestricted free agent.

- Brad Stevens is widely regarded as the best young coach in the game and top 10 in his own right, despite still being rather new to the league. He calls great plays, consistently gets his teams to overachieve and made the unorthodox move to call a second timeout when he feared Jared Sullinger was going to screw up the initial play. Of course the Celtics would score after the adjustment – lucky or not. In 2010 and 2011, I covered Stevens falling agonizingly short at two Final Fours. Now, he’s an elite NBA coach. Remarkable.

The Raptors can make some excuses for losing Friday’s game in Brooklyn: No Kyle Lowry was massive and losing Amir Johnson in the third quarter after he had turned in one of his best performances of the season was crushing as well, plus the streaking Nets are fighting for their playoff lives, but … simply put, the defending in this one was awful. Just when the Raptors teased that they were turning a corner in that department, they put on matador gear and showed the Nets non-stop red. The results weren’t pretty. The season-long Raptors fatal flaw resurfaced: Most of these guys can’t keep anybody in front of them. Greivis Vasquez got torched all night, Terrence Ross has gone from a plus defender last year to one of the worst in the NBA (check the stats if you find this to be hyperbole, he is right near the bottom). Lou Williams wasn’t as good defensively as he has been at other points.

- All of the penetration either set up easy kick-outs (which a better three-point shooting team would have capitalized on, making this an easy Nets win instead of a close one), but mostly resulted to easy forays to the bucket. Deron Williams got there at will, Brook Lopez carved up the Raptors inside and overall, the team surrendered a ridiculous 74 points in the paint (most brutally, in the fourth quarter, when Brooklyn shot 12-for-14 down there). You couldn’t even beat the woeful Knicks with an “effort” like that.

- When Brooklyn stole Thaddeus Young from Minnesota in exchange for the repatriation of Kevin Garnett, it was a terrible development for the Raptors. That’s because Young had torched the Raptors throughout his career, dropping dagger after dagger against them. Now, he is on the team’s biggest rival. In this one, Young was the best player on the floor, no matter who was trying to guard him. He shot a video game-esque 12-for-15 from the floor for 29 points. He is now averaging 16.4 points a game against Toronto during his career, his best mark against any team, and shooting 56% from the floor, his third-best mark. He’s a problem.

- If the defence remains a rumour, any opponent will make quick work of the Raptors in the playoffs, whether its the Wizards, Bucks, Nets or Heat. One would suspect the Raptors will try a lot harder defensively in the playoffs, that pride will kick in, but who knows, it isn’t just about effort. Some of them are just not built to play defence.

- On that note, Dwane Casey is a big Greivis Vasquez fan (as is Masai Ujiri) but he is being badly exposed with a bigger workload. While you can hide him a bit against backups, when he starts, he gets throttled by opposing point guards. Lowry regressed defensively this season as well, but even Jose Calderon didn’t struggle as much defensively as Vasquez does. It’s another problem.

- One could argue a bigger problem is the regression of Ross. DeMar DeRozan plays far better offensively when he has Ross beside him stretching the floor and that’s a major reason why the Raptors continue to feed Ross big minutes, but his defensive slippage has been both inexplicable and … wait for it … a major problem. Ross has gone backwards at a time most players with his talent go the other way. It will be fascinating to see what the team does in the off-season, but he doesn’t look like the answer at small forward for a variety of reasons. One of the league’s worst rebounding and defensive teams desperately needs an upgrade at small forward and power forward, given Amir Johnson’s unfortunate medical situation (he just can’t stay healthy enough to be the dominant, full-time starter he once was, which really is a shame). Johnson’s latest injury was mostly bad luck. Valanciunas had just made a great block and the shot clock expired but Johnson was still contesting and a bunch of players were still crashing the boards and too many limbs got tangled up under the hoop, which led to Johnson landing on one of them and hurting his ankle again.

- Positives: DeRozan’s solid all-around game, which followed his great month of March; The early ball movement; Nets shooting just 43.8% at the rim against Valanciunas vs. 63% against the other Raptors; Despite all of the negatives, the Raptors were in control for much of this game and still had a chance down to the wire.